Download Interwar Period: 1920`s

Interwar
Period:
1920’s - 1930’s
Interwar Period
• The world tries to
recover from WWI
• Many feel cheated by
the TOV and try new
governments
• The writers of the
TOV ignore the
problems they created
USSR: New Economy
• Stalin switches from NEP to
“command economy” (gov’t makes
all decisions)
• 5-Year Plans made to industrialize
USSR by setting “quotas” for
production
• Collectivized farms into huge gov’towned operations
• Peasants who resisted were executed
or sent to gulags (prison camps) - 10
million died during collectivization
Totalitarianism in the USSR
• Stalin was a totalitarian dictator, or
controlled all aspects of life
• Updated the Tsar’s “cheka” (secret
police) into the more powerful
NKVD to monitor citizens’ actions
• 1934 - Stalin started the “Great
Purge” to get rid of over 10 million
“enemies of the Soviet State”
• Controlled all information through
censorship, propaganda, education,
and eliminating religion
China
• Two groups fought for control of
the gov’t: Nationalists and
Communists
• Nationalists had the Koumintang
(KMT) as their party, Chiang Kai
Shek as leader, and the support of
wealthy business leaders
• Communists had Chinese
Communist Party (CCP), Mao
Zedong as their leader, and the
support of the peasants
Civil War in China
• CCP and KMT started civil
war in 1930
• Japan took advantage of
China’s weakness and
invaded Manchuria, China’s
most industrialized region,
in 1937
• CCP and KMT joined forces
to fight the invading
Japanese
Japan
• In 1920’s Japan had a
democracy and a prosperous
economy
• In 1930’s Japan was hit with the
global depression and the people
blamed the gov’t and looked to
the military for strength
• The military controlled Emperor
Hirohito and tried to restore
tradition to Japan
Japanese Aggression
• Japan glorified nationalism and
militarism in the 1930’s under
General Tojo
• Japan openly defied the League
of Nations by invading China
• Japan built up their navy,
airforce, and army in defiance
of the Kellogg-Briand Pact in
which they agreed to not wage
war
Nanking Massacre
• Chinese strongly resisted Japanese
invasion near the city of Nanking
• After the Japanese victory, they
punished the city by killing 300,000
Chinese and raping over 80,000 women
• League of Nations had no power to stop
Japan, paving the way for more violence
• Often referred to as “The Rape of
Nanking”
Nationalism in India
• Many Indians pushed for
independence when it was not
granted after WWI
• Hindus and Muslims came
together under the leadership of
Mohandas Gandhi
• Gandhi used non-violent
protest and civil disobedience
to gain independence from the
British
The Salt March
• Gandhi protested the salt tax
by leading a 240 mile march
to the sea to make salt
• British beat the marchers with
steel-tipped clubs while the
protesters never raised a hand
and over 60,000 were arrested
• The world supported Gandhi,
but did nothing to help
USA 1920’s
• USA uses policy of
“isolationism” to stay out
of foreign problems
• “Red Scare”, fear of
communism, sweeps
through USA
• Technology advances lead
to more consumer goods
like the radio and the car
which people buy on credit
“The Lost Generation”
• WWI made many feel that nothing
was certain and that US society
was empty and moved to Paris,
including Ernest Hemingway and
F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Existentialism, or the idea that
each person creates their own
reality, became popular
• Art became more abstract in
Dadaism, Cubism, and Surrealism
Raoul Hausmann, “Mechanical Head”, 1920
Pablo Picasso
Salvador
Dali
Marcel Duchamp
USA 1930’s
• Great Depression hits in 1929 because:
– factories and farms produced more than people
could buy
– people who bought on credit couldn’t make
payments
– stock was bought on margin, or borrowed money, so
the market crashed
• Farmers couldn’t make payments to the banks
and they lost their farms and banks ran out of
money
FDR and the New Deal
• USA blamed Pres. Hoover
for the GD so they elected
Franklin Roosevelt (FDR)
• FDR had a plan to get the
USA out of the GD called the
New Deal
• The New Deal created gov’t
sponsored projects to get
people back to work
Italy
• Italy felt cheated by the TOV and the
new Fascist Party formed under
Benito Mussolini in 1919 became
popular
• Fascism (FASHism) glorified
nationalism, the military,
competition, and HATED
communism
• 1922 Mussolini and his Black Shirts
led “March on Rome” and took
power from King Emmanuel
Italy under Fascism
• Called “Il Duce”(leader),
Mussolini outlawed democracy,
political competition, freedom
of speech, but improved Italy’s
economy
• 1935 invaded Ethiopia and the
League did nothing to stop them
& GB let the Italians use the
Suez canal to get to Ethiopia
Germany
• Weimar Republic is the weak
democratic gov’t after WWI
• “Hyperinflation” ruins Germany’s
economy as they print money to
make TOV reparations
• The Dawes Plan is made to loan
money to Germany and it helps until
1929 when the Great Depression hits
• Germans blame the Weimar
Republic for all problems
Rise of Hitler
• Adolf Hitler, a WWI vet and member of the Nazi
party, outlined his ideas in Mein Kampf which he
wrote while in jail:
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TOV and communism should be destroyed
master race of “aryans” should rule Germany
inferior races caused WWI loss
Germans needed “lebensraum” or more living space
• 1932, with 40% unemployment, many Germans
looked to Hitler for hope and leadership